Thiruvananthapuram: The five-member international jury headed by acclaimed Arab filmmaker and producer Michel Khleifi will decide the winner of the Suvarna Chakoram (Golden Crow Pheasant), the top prize of the 21th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), and the other honors on Friday.
Besides the Golden Crow Pheasant Award for Best Film, the other awards to be announced at the closing ceremony of the festival are the Silver Crow Pheasant Award for Best Director and Best Debut Director, Silver Crow Pheasant Award for Audiences' film, FIPRESCI Award for Best International Film and for Best Malayalam Film, Netpac Award for Best Asian Film and for Best Malayalam Film, Malayalam Films in The Market Award.
The best film will receive a memento with a cash prize of Rs 15 lakh to be shared between its director and producer. Best director will be given the Rajatha Chakoram award with a cash prize of Rs 4 lakh. While best debut director will receive Rs 3 lakh, the film that win audience poll will receive Rs 2 lakh.
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The Audience Prize will be given to the director of the film voted as the Best Entry in competition section by the festival delegates. Two other juries -- the FIPRESCI or the International Federation of Film Critics and the NETPAC or the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema -- will present their awards for the Best Film and Best Asian Film respectively.
The awards will be presented at the closing ceremony, scheduled to be held at Nishagandhi at 6 pm today.
Fifteen films, including four from India, are in the race for the top honours. The Indian entries are Malayalam films Manhole, by debutant director Vidhu Vincent, Dr Biju's Kaadu Pookkunna Neram, Bengali film The Last Mural (Chitrokar) by Saibal Mitra, and Maj Rati Keteki, directed by Santwana Bardoloi.
The other film is the competition section are Clair Obscur (directed by Yesim Ustaoglu), Clash (Mohamed Diab), Cold of Calandar (Mustafa Kara), Die Beautiful (Jun Robles Lana), Knife in the Clear Water (Wang Xuebo), Sink (Brett Michael Innes), Soul on a String (Zhang Yang), The Cursed Ones (Nana Obiri Yeboah), The Return (Green Zeng), Warehoused (Jack Zagha Kababie) and Where are my Shoes? (Kioumars Pourahmad).
The international jury for the competition section include celebrated Indian actor Seema Biswas, Serik Aprymov, filmmaker and writer from Kazakhstan, Baran Kosari, Iranian actress and designer, and Pedro Pimenta, the programme director of Durban Film Festival.
The FIPRESCI jury members are Anders Larsson, a film critic from Sweden, Salome Kikaleishvili from Georgia and Shoma Chatterji, a film scholar. The NETPAC jury members are Rada Sesic, film director from Netherlands, Sam Ho, a curator and critic, and Raman Chawla.
